American Studies [Paperback]

At each step of this journey through American cultural history, Louis Menand has an original point to make: he explains the real significance of William James's nervous breakdown, and of the anti-Semitism in T. S. Eliot's writing. He reveals the reasons for the remarkable commercial successes of William Shawn'sNew Yorkerand William Paley's CBS. He uncovers the connection between Larry Flynt'sHustlerand Jerry Falwell's evangelism, between the atom bomb and the Scholastic Aptitude Test. He locates the importance of Richard Wright, Norman Mailer, Pauline Kael, Christopher Lasch, andRolling Stonemagazine. And he lends an ear to Al Gore in the White House as the Starr Report is finally presented to the public.

Like his critically acclaimed bestseller,The Metaphysical Club, American Studiesis intellectual and cultural history at its best: game and detached, with a strong curiosity about the political underpinnings of ideas and about the reasons successful ideas insinuate themselves into the culture at large. From one of our leading thinkers and critics, known both for his sly wit and reportorial high-jinks [and] clarity and rigor (The Nation), these essays are incisive, surprising, and impossible to put down.

Preface

William James and the Case of the Epileptic Patient

The Principles of Oliver Wendell Holmes

T.S. Eliot and the Jews

Richard Wright: the Hammer and the Nail

The Long Shadow of James B. Conant

The Last Emperor: William S. Paley

A Friend Writes: The OldNew Yorker

Norman Mailer in His Time

Life in the Stone Age

The Popist: Pauline Kael

Christopher Lasch's Quarrel with Liberalism

Lust in Action: Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt

Laurie Anderson'sUnited States

The Mind of Al Gore

The Reluctant Memorialist: Maya Lin

Notes

Louis Menandis the Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofThe Metaphysical Club